Texto: If there
is one 'winner' from last night's terrible events in Paris, it is France's
anti-EU, anti-immigration far-right wing Front Nationale party leader Marine Le
Pen. Having already ascended to the lead in yet another poll ahead of France's
2017 elections, Le Pen came out swinging this morning call for France to
"re-arm itself," stating that radical Islam must be "eradicated"
from France. She further demanded that border controls be made
"permanent" and binational Islamists must be depreived of their
French passport.

As Bloomberg
notes:

*FAR RIGHT PARTY
LEADER MARINE LE PEN COMMENTS IN TV SPEECH

*LE PEN SAYS
FRANCE NEEDS TO CONTROL ITS BORDERS PERMANENTLY

*LE PEN CALLS FOR
PERMANENT BORDER CONTROLS

*LE PEN CALLS FOR
'ERADICATION' OF RADICAL ISLAMISM IN FRANCE

*LE PEN: FRANCE
IS 'VULNERABLE', 'MUST RE-ARM ITSELF'

*LE PEN: FRENCH
PEOPLE ARE NO LONGER SAFE

*LE PEN:
BI-NATIONAL ISLAMISTS MUST DEPRIVED OF FRENCH PASSEPORT

Which is all fine
if this was some extreme and unpopular party, but in fact...

Marine Le Pen
Tops Another French Presidency Poll

The Front
National party in France are moving one step closer to seriously challenging
for the country’s presidency. A new opinion poll reveals that their leader,
nationalist firebrand Marine Le Pen, has topped yet another poll ahead of the
elections in 2017.

The IFOP poll in
conjunction with Sud Radio and Lyon Capitale gives Ms. Le Pen a lead under
three different scenarios, reflecting the panic setting into the French
political establishment which is considering a ‘grand coalition’ of centre-left
and centre-right parties to keep the Front National out.

According to
IFOP, if centrist politician Francois Bayrou and centre-right Nicolas Sarkozy
ran, Ms. Le Pen would top the first choice in the multi-round election with 28
per cent of the votes. In second, the Republican Party’s Sarkozy (23), and in
third, current president, socialist Francois Hollande (21).

As John Rubino
noted previously, there are two reasons for the rise of National Front and
other anti-euro parties:

1) The adoption
of a common currency hasn’t delivered the broad-based prosperity that was
promised. Instead, Germany has entered a golden age of soaring exports, massive
trade surpluses and balanced budgets while most other eurozone countries have
been unable to function with a currency they can’t devalue at will.

2) The European
Union’s decision to counter falling birthrates with rising immigration from
Africa and the Middle East has, in the opinion of a growing number of
Europeans, produced a two-tiered society in which a shrinking layer of liberal,
pacifist, aging “natives” sits atop a growing, restless layer of newcomers who
instead of assimilating are trying to impose their culture on traditional
Europe.

And then came the
Paris attacks. The perps are Middle Eastern though it’s not clear what group
they’re affiliated with. But no one seems to care whether it’s ISIS or
al-Qaeda. Their ancestry is all that will matter in the next election, and any
politician with an anti-euro, anti-immigrant platform will find a suddenly very
receptive audience.

Título: Wake up,
Europe: Russia is not the enemy

Autor/Fuente:
Danielle Ryan / Russia Today

Texto: In the
aftermath of the slew of horrific terror attacks in Paris last night, European
nations must come to admit that, with their continuous and blind support of US
foreign policy, they are sowing the seeds of their own demise.

For more than a
year and a half, Washington, with little concern for consequences, has used
Europe as a tool in its futile attempts to batter Russia into submission. First
in Ukraine, now in Syria — and each time Europe has sided with Washington
against its own interests, it has suffered for it.

That US-driven
rift between Europe and Russia must not be allowed to widen any further. The
risks to Europe now are far too great for Paris, Brussels and Berlin to be
squandering allies in favor of fickle friends — and Friday’s attacks in the
French capital highlight the total absurdity of the West continuing to treat
Russia as its enemy in the face of such a menacing common threat.

Threat of an
overreaction looms

Naturally, the
focus today remains on grief, anger and confusion. But as the dust settles over
this latest tragedy, Europeans will continue to question the wisdom of foreign
policy that results in this kind of bloody blowback in their capital cities.
Whether their leaders can listen to reason is another question entirely.

Threats like IS
cannot be dealt with until we are honest with ourselves about how they evolved,
and the role we played in that evolution. There is, as we will no doubt hear
many times in the coming days, no excuse for terror. That is true, but it is
also unfortunately a simplistic and idealistic mentality — and when spouted
from the mouths of missile-happy Western politicians, there is an almost macabre
hypocrisy to it. It’s a mentality that makes us feel better in justifying our
own terror and violence, in the name of combating the terror and violence of
others — and it is a vicious circle.

Terror attacks
like these allow the worst instincts of the Western establishment to rise to
the surface. The collective fear and trauma caused by such horror is cynically
harnessed by governments to shift public opinion towards supporting more war
and violence, which results only in more fear, more death, more destruction and
more terrorism. This cycle has become the new normal.

French President
Francois Hollande’s first comments after the Paris attacks demonstrate as much:
“We will continue to lead the fight, and it will be merciless,” he said. It’s
sentences like that which should give Europeans even more reason to fear where
this will all lead.

Attacks shift
agenda at Vienna talks

As another round
of multilateral talks on Syria begins in Vienna today, the agenda will surely
be affected by this latest string of attacks. But there is an opportunity here
for European nations, including France, to go against their worst instincts and
orders from Washington, and to more seriously consider Russia’s recent
eight-point plan for a Syria peace deal.

The alternative —
supporting Washington’s failed policy of arming, training and aiding “moderate”
rebel groups — has clearly not been in Europe’s best interests.

We have seen
knee-jerk overreactions which exacerbate violence all before. We know where
they lead. France’s response should not focus on exacting some sort of
American-style ‘shock and awe’ revenge, but should be about doubling down on
its efforts to achieve a peace deal in Syria. That must involve a broad
reassessment of its strategy in the war-torn country and a serious
reconsideration of Russia’s proposals — or at least a greater openness to
cooperation with Moscow. Russia has not put forth its plan as an iron-clad
ultimatum. It is open to suggestions.

The pressure from
the US side however, might be too great. The Obama administration has
demonstrated, for whatever reasons, that cooperating with Russia on an equal
footing is not something they feel they can lower themselves to. Washington
will attempt to seize the moment and dominate the Vienna talks. The fact that
Barack Obama yesterday evening took to a podium to comment on the Paris attacks
while the siege was still ongoing — and before even the French president
himself had spoken publicly — is evidence enough of that.

But as Europe
deals with the blowback that the US has avoided thus far, the balance may tip
out of Washington’s favor. The French people are focused on mourning today, but
soon they will begin asking questions. They will question the sanity of the
government which flirted with radical groups in Syria at some other nation’s
beck and call. They will question the competence of the security and
intelligence services, which despite monitoring the hundreds of French citizens
returning from Syria, still did not see this coming. They will question
Europe’s open-doors policy to migrants and refugees, fearing justifiably, that
among the mostly normal humans fleeing terror, there will be those intent on
doing them harm.

The root of the
problem

Of course, the
roots of this go much further back than Syria. The US handed the EU the pen to
sign its own death warrant when George Bush invaded Iraq and paved the way for
a group as horrifically barbaric as the Islamic State to rise from the carnage
and destruction.

Terrorism is a
global threat. The heinous attacks in Paris prove that nowhere is safe from
this menace. Not a small concert venue on a Friday night. Not a friendly
football game between neighboring nations. Not an inconspicuous Cambodian
restaurant in a Parisian neighborhood.

There is a lesson
for France from last night’s horrible events. You cannot simultaneously
publicly battle against extremism and cozy up to the worst extremists of all as
a matter of foreign policy. Nor can you, to serve selfish geopolitical
interests, pick and choose which terrorists are bad and which ones are good. It
doesn’t work like that.

The US foreign
policy class has an aversion to learning from its mistakes — whether that is
intentional or not is a discussion for another day. Either way, Europe must not
follow in its footsteps any longer.

Truth be told, no
one knows how to deal with ISIS. Not Washington, not Paris and not Moscow.
There isn’t a rulebook — but there is certainly a list of tried and tested
failures that can inform our decision making. What is also clear is that this
threat does demand solidarity among nations who should be able to put their
minor differences aside to face a common threat.

To allow
Washington to fan the flames of a useless rift between Europe and Russia is
pure insanity. The longer Europe remains blind to this reality, the longer we
treat Russia as an enemy rather than a partner in dealing with IS, the longer
we must prepare ourselves for endless violence — in Syria and in our own front
yards.

Subtítulo: Says
Russia stands ready to work closely with France to bring the perpetrators to
justice

Fuente: Sputnik -
Russian news agency

Texto: Russian
President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to his French counterpart Francois
Hollande stressing that the Paris tragedy showed once again barbaric nature of
terrorism, which poses challenge to civilization, the Kremlin press service
said Saturday.

“This tragedy is
further evidence of the barbaric nature of terrorism, which poses a challenge
to human civilization,” the press service said.

Terrorist attacks
were staged at different locations in Paris on Friday, including the Bataclan
concert hall and the Stade de France stadium, claiming the lives of more than
150 people.

“I would like to
confirm the readiness for close cooperation with French partners on
investigating the crime committed in Paris… I hope the masterminds and
perpetrators will be brought to justice,” Putin said in a telegram to French
President Francois Hollande, as quoted by the press service.

The Friday
attacks in the French capital occurred at seven different locations, including
the Bataclan concert hall and the Stade de France stadium. They took the lives
of over 120 people.

Título: Paris
Attacks Likely to Inspire More Aggressive U.S. Strategy on ISIS

Autores/Fuente:
Peter Baker y Eric Schmittnov / The New York Times

Texto: When the
Islamic State stormed onto the scene in Syria and Iraq, it seemed focused on
seizing territory in its own neighborhood. But in the last two weeks, the
so-called soldiers of the caliphate appear to have demonstrated a chilling
reach, with terrorist attacks against Russia, in Lebanon and now in Europe.

The seemingly
synchronized assaults that turned Paris into a war zone on Friday came just
days after a bombing targeted a Shiite district of Beirut controlled by Iran’s
ally, Hezbollah, and a Russian passenger jet was downed over Egypt. The rapid
succession of strikes, all claimed by the Islamic State, suggested that the
regional war has turned into a global one.

For President
Obama and American allies, the attacks are almost certain to force a
reassessment of the threat and may require a more aggressive strategy against
the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. Mr. Obama prepared to
leave Saturday for a scheduled trip to Antalya, Turkey, where he was to consult
with other world leaders in a Group of 20 summit meeting now sure to be
dominated by the Paris attacks and questions of what to do next.

“ISIS is
absolutely a threat beyond the region,” said Frances Fragos Townsend, the top
White House counterterrorism adviser under President George W. Bush. “We must
not continue to assume that ISIS is merely an away threat. It clearly has
international ambitions beyond its self-proclaimed caliphate.”

The situation was
already complex enough, with varied players with separate interests involved in
the war.

Iran is fighting
the Islamic State, but is hardly an ally of the United States. Russia says it
is fighting the Islamic State as well, but mainly seems to be trying to bolster
the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, who Mr. Obama has demanded
step down.

Now Mr. Obama may
have to rethink the lines of alliance and the contours of the war he has been
waging.

“Truthfully, I
can’t imagine how it doesn’t change their approach,” said Michael E. Leiter, a
former director of the National Counterterrorism Center under Mr. Bush and Mr.
Obama. “When you give this kind of organization this much freedom of movement
and go after it this incrementally, people shouldn’t be surprised by things
like the aircraft bombing.”

Matthew G. Olsen,
another former director of the counterterrorism center, said the series of
major attacks would compel the White House to take additional steps. “All of
this raises the stakes for the U.S. and increases pressure on the U.S. and the
West to respond more aggressively,” he said.

Escalating action
against ISIS carries its own risks. The Russian airliner was attacked after
Moscow intervened in the Syria conflict. And ISIS has warned it would step up
strikes against those countries that have joined the American-led coalition
fighting the group in Iraq and Syria.

“The operational
tempo is increasing on both sides,” said Mr. Olsen. “We’re increasing our
attacks in Syria and Iraq, and ISIS is increasing their attacks as well.”

Representative
Adam B. Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence
Committee, said the attacks should dispel any illusions about the nature of the
Islamic State. “It will add another sense of urgency to defeating” it, he said,
“and that will be very hard to do without eliminating its sanctuary. If this
doesn’t create in the world a fierce determination to rid ourselves of this
scourge, I don’t know what will.”

The Paris attacks
will inevitably raise the question of whether to escalate American and Western
military operations in Syria and Iraq. Mr. Obama has authorized airstrikes and
sent small teams of Special Operations forces acting as advisers to aid Iraqi
military units, Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters on the ground. But he has
strongly resisted a more extensive involvement of American ground troops to
avoid repeating what he sees as the mistakes of the Iraq war.

Ms. Townsend and
others said that the White House had been too reluctant to acknowledge an
“inconvenient truth” — that the Islamic State threat extends beyond the Middle
East and could easily lead to a Paris-style attack in the United States.

If there were
doubts about that before, American intelligence agencies on Saturday were busy
trying to make sure that that was not the case, scouring passenger manifests on
airliners bound for the United States and searching surveillance resources for
chatter about plots.

Mr. Obama and
Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear in statements after the Paris
attacks that the United States would stand firm against terrorism, whatever its
source. In Vienna, where Mr. Kerry was trying to negotiate a settlement of the
Syrian civil war that helped give rise to the Islamic State, he said the Paris
attacks would “stiffen our resolve” to fight back.

“You’re going to
see several things,” said Steven Simon, a former Middle East adviser to Mr.
Obama. “Tighter border controls, more intensive surveillance in the U.S. and
more outreach to local communities in the hope that extremists will be fingered
by their friends and family. And a tightening of already intimate cooperation
with European intelligence agencies.”

Juan Carlos
Zarate, a former counterterrorism adviser to Mr. Bush, said the spreading
threat would require action on multiple fronts. “In the wake of the Paris,
Beirut and Sinai attacks, the U.S. government and allies may not realize that
there may not be time to contain this threat — and instead need to be much more
aggressive in disrupting terrorists’ hold on territory, resources and the minds
of Muslim youth.”

The Paris
attacks, coming so soon after the deadly shootings at Charlie Hebdo, the French
satirical newspaper, in January will force American analysts to review their
assumptions about the potential threat at home.

While attacks in
places like Mumbai, India, have been highly coordinated, much attention in the
United States has focused on the possibility of lone-wolf attackers inspired
by, if not directed by, radical groups overseas, as manifested by the shootings
at Fort Hood, Tex., in 2009 or the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013.

“The multiple
coordinated attacks defy the lone-wolf narrative we had constructed,” said
Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of homeland security under Mr.
Obama. “The fact this could happen is remarkable, and not in a complimentary
way. We can withstand random guys with low-level attacks and minimal
consequences. This means the ‘war’ we thought we had put to rest has
resurfaced.”

Bruce Hoffman,
director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University, said it
was never an either-or choice between lone wolves and foreign attackers. “The
emphasis on lone wolves was all part of the wishful thinking that ISIS was
purely a local phenomenon that could be contained to Syria and Iraq,” he said.

Indeed, the
initial assumptions on Friday were that the Paris attacks must be the work of
Al Qaeda, a group that traditionally has had wider reach and aspirations than
the Islamic State.

In 2010, Mr.
Hoffman recalled, Osama bin Laden called on Qaeda franchises to stage
Mumbai-style attacks in European cities, but his order fell on deaf ears
because there was no group capable of such an operation at that time.

Today, the
Islamic State seems to have filled that void.

“They wanted to
be considered a global terrorist organization,” said John D. Cohen, a Rutgers
University professor who was a senior Department of Homeland Security
counterterrorism and intelligence official until last year. “If so, they’ll
have sent a loud message they are.”

Título: Paris
Attacks to Dominate Agenda at G-20 Conference in Turkey

Autor/Fuente:
Michael Shearnov / The New York Times

Texto: President
Obama will consult about the Paris terrorist attacks with world leaders in
Turkey this weekend as the annual gathering of presidents and prime ministers
from the world’s largest economies there is poised to become an urgent summit
meeting on confronting extremism.

The president is
scheduled to depart on Air Force One on Saturday afternoon for a 10-day trip to
Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia, a day after a series of simultaneous
attacks killed at least 127 people in Paris and prompted President François
Hollande of France to tighten the nation’s border controls and mobilize the
military.

On Friday
evening, Mr. Obama called the situation in Paris an “attack on all of humanity”
and pledged to do whatever it takes to join the French people in bringing the
terrorists to justice. The president is expected to arrive early Sunday morning
in Antalya, Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast, for the Group of 20 summit
meeting.

The official
economic agenda in Turkey and Asia was already likely to be overshadowed by a
series of intense meetings between Mr. Obama and his counterparts about the
Syrian civil war, the refugee crisis in Europe, disputes with President
Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and ongoing tensions in the South China Sea.

But the Paris
attacks are certain to push even those topics to the side, at least
temporarily, as world leaders confront the scale of the terrorist attacks in
the French capital. The leaders will grapple with the rising threat of the
Islamic State, which President Hollande has blamed for the Paris attacks.
American authorities on Saturday did not dispute Mr. Hollande’s assessment or
the Islamic State’s own claim of responsibility.

There was no
official word early Saturday about possible changes to the schedule of events
in Turkey, which were to feature an opening ceremony and sessions on
development, climate change, the global economy and growth. A dinner to discuss
terrorism and refugees was already planned for Sunday night.

Mr. Obama had
been scheduled to meet, one-on-one with Mr. Hollande, but the French president
canceled his visit to Turkey soon after the scale of the attacks became clear.

Six years after
Mr. Obama attended his first G-20 meeting at the height of the global economic
crisis in 2009, the United States economy has rebounded and the president was
looking forward to attending this year’s gathering as the leader of one of the
world’s strongest economies.

In the
Philippines and Malaysia, Mr. Obama will bring with him the just-negotiated
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, and a pledge to win its passage by
Congress back home. The president planned to preview his hopes for a new,
global climate pact that is scheduled to be concluded during a summit meeting
in Paris that begins late this month. It was unclear Saturday what impact the
terrorist attacks in that city might have on the climate meeting.

Mr. Obama had
also planned to use the summit meetings to make diplomatic progress after
recent military advances in Iraq against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS,
ISIL and Daesh, which has seized vast territory in both Iraq and Syria.
Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to forge a diplomatic path that
could lead to the eventual departure from Syria of President Bashar al-Assad
and an end to four years of conflict in the country.

Mr. Kerry met in
Vienna on Saturday with diplomats from Europe and the Middle East, seeking
progress on establishing a cease-fire and resolving differences about the
future of Mr. Assad’s government.

Mr. Obama’s
conversations with world leaders are scheduled to take place not far from
Turkey’s border with Syria, a transit point for refugees. Before the Paris
attacks, aides to Mr. Obama had expressed hope for what they called
“incremental” movement during the president’s discussions, but they cautioned
that negotiations would need to continue beyond the president’s trip to the
region.

“These issues are
hugely complex and fraught,” said Susan E. Rice, the president’s national
security adviser. “If they weren’t, they would have been resolved a long time
ago.”

“I don’t think
anybody expects a single outcome that all of a sudden readily resolves all
these difficult issues,” she added.

Not on the
official schedule is a meeting between Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin, who is expected
at the summit meeting in Antalya. But even before the Paris attacks, White
House officials said they had anticipated that the two leaders would have
“ample opportunity” to talk privately. The last meeting between the two men, at
the United Nations General Assembly in September, was described as
confrontational, even before Mr. Putin expanded his country’s own military
involvement in Syria.

It was unclear
Saturday whether the Paris attacks might alter the dynamic between Mr. Obama
and Mr. Putin. The bloodshed in France comes after a terrorist attack in
Lebanon and the crash in Egypt of a Russian airliner, which is thought to have
been brought down by a terrorist bomb.

Speaking before
the Paris attacks, Heather Conley, a former deputy assistant secretary of state
under President George W. Bush, said “Mr. Putin will be far from isolated” at
the summit meeting. Ms. Conley, now at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, added that “Russia now plays an increasing role in how
to resolve the political transition in Syria.”

But Ms. Rice
rejected that assessment of Mr. Putin. “The Russians certainly have their
ideas; we have ours; other players have theirs,” she said, adding that she does
not see “any indication that President Putin’s isolation is diminished.”

Later in his
trip, Mr. Obama is expected to highlight the Pacific trade agreement to
underscore what White House officials call his long-term commitment to a larger
American presence in Asia.

Mr. Obama is not
expected to meet with President Xi Jinping of China, although the two leaders
will both attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in the
Philippines. But officials said Mr. Obama will make concerns about freedom of
navigation through the South China Sea a “central issue of discussion” during
his visits.

“The United
States takes no position on competing sovereignty claims” in the South China
Sea, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said in a news briefing
before the Paris attacks. “But what we do take a strong position on is
protecting the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea and airspace that’s
guaranteed to all countries.”

Mr. Obama is
certain to hear much on that subject from other Asian leaders, many of whom
want help from the United States in standing against China’s claims on the
disputed waters off its coast. In late October, the administration sent a Navy
destroyer through the disputed waters in what officials called a “freedom of
navigation” exercise designed to send a signal to the Chinese.

Título: Attacks
in Paris Add Urgency to Talks on Ending Syria War

Autor/Fuente:
Julie Hirschfeld Davis

Texto: The top
diplomats from more than a dozen countries met here on Saturday for talks on
ending the crisis in Syria, vowing to redouble their efforts to confront
terrorism after the deadly attacks in Paris.

The carnage in
France provided a grim backdrop and somber urgency for the negotiations, aimed
at reaching a cease-fire in Syria and paving the way for a political transition
there that could end four years of civil war.

“It is more
necessary than ever in the current circumstance to coordinate the international
fight against terrorism,” Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said as
the meetings began.

Secretary of
State John Kerry said the attacks in Paris and recently in Iraq and Beirut,
Lebanon, were “the most vile, horrendous, outrageous, unacceptable acts on the
planet.” He added that they were born of “a kind of medieval and modern fascism
at the same time, which has no regard for life, which seeks to destroy and
create chaos and disorder and fear.”

“The one thing we
could say to those people is that what they do in this is stiffen our resolve,
all of us, to fight back, to hold people accountable and to stand up for rule
of law, which is exactly what we are here to do,” Mr. Kerry said after meeting
with Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia and before sitting down with the
rest of the ministers assembled for the talks. “And if they’ve done anything,
they’ve encouraged us today to do even harder work to make progress and to help
resolve the crises that we face.”

Still, the
challenges in Syria are steep, and Mr. Kerry has conceded in recent days that
they will not be quickly resolved. The negotiations involve a diverse set of
players with conflicting agendas — including the United States, Russia, Iran
and Saudi Arabia — and there is no clear consensus on the most pressing issues.
Syrians were absent from the meetings in Vienna discussing their fate, with no
representatives for either President Bashar al-Assad or the constellation of
opposition groups vying to oust him.

Mohammad Javad
Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, who had planned to skip the meeting,
canceled a scheduled trip in light of the Paris attacks and traveled to Vienna
to huddle with his counterparts on Syria.

Mr. Kerry has
stepped up the pace of the diplomatic effort on Syria in recent weeks in order
to make headway on the seemingly intractable situation. On Thursday, he cast
the effort as a central element of the Obama administration’s strategy to
marshal a broad international effort to isolate and defeat the Islamic State,
also known as ISIS or ISIL, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.

Mr. Fabius said
Saturday that the terrorism in his country underlined the urgency of the Syria
talks.

“One of the
topics of the meeting today in Vienna is precisely to see concretely how we can
reinforce international coordination in the fight against Daesh,” he said,
using the Arabic acronym for the group.

Mr. Lavrov said
the attacks should prompt a more urgent effort to go after the Islamic State.

“We have to
strongly reiterate that there should be no tolerance vis-à-vis terrorists,” Mr.
Lavrov said after his meeting with Mr. Kerry. Referring to the Nusra Front, Al
Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, he added, “There could be no justification for us
not doing much more to defeat ISIL, Al Nusra and the like, and I hope that this
meeting as well would allow us to move forward.”

TIEMPOS DE OSCURIDAD

"The past century has seen a counter-revolution against the Enlightenment, classical economics and its culmination in socialist hopes to steer industrial capitalism to evolve into democratic socialism. What is occurring today is a self-destructive financial dynamic of impoverishment, dependency and breakdown in many ways like what happened when Rome’s creditor oligarchy plunged the Empire into the Dark Age two thousand years ago. The post-feudal real estate and financial oligarchies, the landed aristocracies of Europe and the great banking families and American trust builders have made a comeback, and the New Cold War is intended to lock in their victory. Ukraine is simply the latest battlefield, and battlefields end up devastated."